A Light within a Shadow
by Jaron Zavier
Summary: Not all forms of evil are inherintly bad, just like not all forms good are always pure. A person who lost everything from his memories to his body now must now undergo a journey in the form of a monster feared and hated in all world's. A heartless.
1. Chapter 1

**HELLO I'm new to this. This is not my first idea but this is the first time I actually published something. I looked around the kingdom hearts fanfics and couldn't find any stories with a story like this so I got on it and finished the chapter in whole day. Kingdom hearts belongs to Disney interactive studios ETC. it obviously does not belong to me. The only thing that does is my OC and how I take the story forward. I hope you guys enjoy and if my possibly poorly placed commas or any other grammar error annoy you let me know so I can improve. Anyway on to the first chapter!**

Chapter one.

Darkness surrounded the faintly lit object hovering in the dark space. The object looked broken missing several pieces from its form. Had it been whole, it would have resembled a heart but now its just a fraction of what it used to be...Yet it was aware if barely of its existence as it continued to probe around, looking for something the moment its predicament was thrust upon it.

The Damaged heart kept searching sending pulses through the darkness using its "heartstrings" to find it was looking for, a way to become whole again. It searched endlessly for its missing pieces with what little determination and heart it had left trying to fix it self.

Then finally it felt it, a faint pulse that rebounded back over numerous distances in less then an instant, a piece that like very much like it self was surrounded by a darkness yet a different one. It was trapped within a servant of the very darkness that brought the fractured heart to its current state.

"A Heartless"

The piece it felt was small but strong, second to what it was now, the largest of piece of itself that remained. The damaged heart knew that it could do nothing but communicate and probe for its missing pieces, it needed something or someone to go and collect them physically and finally bring them back together through it to reform what was lost. It was the only way to This fragment slumbered, trapped within the the darkness. It found that it had light, a strong one at that yet it also held darkness of its own one that was unfamiliar yet similar to the darkness that contained it.

It knew what it had to do. It's risky but there is no other way. For it to fix it self, all it had to do was get a part of itself on the right path.

The fragmented heart reached out to this piece sending out waves of reassurance and then began to transfer what light and power it had left barely saving the tiniest bit for itself knowing it would send itself into hibernation for recovery. The receiving piece quivered with anticipation and glee is it felt more whole then a little piece like itself should and began to wake.

/

The heartless searched around looking for victims to fill its insatiable endless hunger for hearts. The particular heartless was different then its usual brethren. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the heart it was created upon was only a small part of a once strong heart not fully a whole one. This heart not only did it have light it also had an unfamiliar darkness it couldn't understand. The heartless was intended to be a gargoyle heartless and it was but only it was given something by the foreign darkness that its mindless destructive instincts couldn't complain about. Its appearance had changed radically compared to its winged brethren.

Its head still had kept the similar shape only somewhat similar to the other gargoyles however unlike its brothers its head had both jaws still attached to form a single teeth filled visage. Being the only teeth showing were its fangs that rested outside of its lips. Its horns faced front with an upward curve and were black with white circles going around them reaching the tips. Its eyes were the most unusual it's eyes they were yellow but they had pupils the same kind of eyes were that of human who had given into the darkness. Its form was colored black like many heartless yet had bright teal accents going across its form in lined patterns around its arms reaching down to its wrists. The same can be seen for its legs but its torso was a more intricate design. The teal circled the heartless symbol replacing the black outlines for teal ones while keeping the red interior on its dark featureless sleeveless vest. It's hands and feet were less stringy and thicker then the limbs it's fellow heartless had, they had talons three to four inches long sharp enough to rend steel. Finally its wings, they were leathery and black with the same teal design like the rest of it's body spread fully wing span was equivalent to 2 to 3 arms length.

The heartless stopped in it's tracks as something seemed to change.

Something was wrong.

Even with the changes from the strange darkness within the fragmented heart it felt uneasy if even that was possible, it felt.. faint pulses coming from somewhere connecting to it's vessal stirring the once thought dominated heart piece.

Then finally it happened.

Searing pain blasted through the heartless, screeching as it felt it's will being disintegrated and destroyed as power surged into it's heart fragment from an unknown source.

The small piece of heart had awoken and with it the personality within.

After a minute of the mental assault and pain the heartless spirit was exercised and a dark orb with yellow glowing eyes rose from its vessel bursting into nothing sending it back to the darkness and a new conscience took it's place causing the heartless body to collapse to the ground.

 **Hours later...**

First thing he woke up to was agony. His body ached as he groaned out in pain, quivering on the floor as he stopped moving and tried have a minute to recover feeling breathless. No longer in the same pain previously, he tried to stand up only to stumble and immediately fall face first into the dirt. Muffled grumbles and curses aside he tried again, this time getting support from a dark rusted lamp post. Finally able to stand on his shaky legs he was able see without the entire world spinning in front of him.

He began to inspect his environment.

The land was dark and gray around him, the very ground and trees dead with no signs of life, a moon shone brightly above him giving the lifeless place it's only main source of light. Tomb stones were placed throughout the area leaving a deathly silence. Last was a cobblestone path that seemingly led to a small town in the distance.

He began to think of how he got there only to realize couldn't, in fact he couldn't remember anything, not his home , any family, friends... He couldn't even remember his own name. Well he could remember that he is a guy and is human and basic functions but that's it.

They were gone, all of his memories just non-existent. He felt almost empty inside.

"Why can't I remember anything? What happened to me?" He wondered worriedly.

He started to panic, he was lost , didn't know his own name, nothing!

As he gripped the light post tightly in his panicked state he was startled by the grating of metal that came from the post. He looked to his hand only to stop cold.

For the spot he thought his hand was on was instead replaced with a monstrous clawed limb crushing the metal in it's grasp.

His breathing began to accelerate as he slowly released the groaning metal from his grip taking his limb closer to his face to examine it. He brought his other hand together and began to shake as both of them were clawed limbs.

He began to swiftly examine himself looking at his equally clawed feet to his legs and was bordering on hyperventilation.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!" He shouted

He needed a mirror. A reflection, SOMETHING!

He starting to rapidly look around him turning in all directions to find something to reveal his face.

He saw a large puddle on the few yards away next to a dead oak with thick branches level with his own head.

He quickly began stumbling towards the water not questioning how it got there in this dead dry land.

He trips only to catch himself on his hands and knees just on the edge of the water and raises his head to peer at his face to see... A monster.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH"He screamed

Rising in alarm he immediately crashes his head into the thick oak branch just hanging above him rebounding him straight into the dirt face first.

*Uhhhggg* he groans in pain as he clutches his head with his new..."hands".

After a few minutes he composes himself sitting down as he stares at his new body. His thoughts were in a flurry of fear, panic, and confusion.

"I— I'm a monster, how did this happen?" He thought.

He then edged back to view his reflection once more and started to examine himself more clearly, his face revealed once more. He opened his mouth to show an intimidating maw of teeth and fangs. He closes them with a audible snap, flinching slightly at his reflection mimicking him perfectly. He finally notices two shapes sprouting from behind his shoulders. He twisted his head around, feeling around his back and felt them.

He had wings, actual genuine wings to use and experience flight with. Despite their somewhat dark appearance, he felt excited? Maybe the thought of flight greatly appealed to him when he was human. However wings or no they seemed to furl and sag behind him lightly touching the ground.

Of course this body didn't come with a how to operate wings manual, typical.

Back to the matter at hand he thought of the next concerning matter.

"Where the heck was he?" He pondered.

He got up finally getting a bearing on his new legs and was able to walk around without too much trouble. From what he could see he had two directions to the left the road in front of him led to the woods and to the right a town in the distance.

Unsure of how people might react to his appearance he wasn't sure if going into town was a good idea, but he didn't want to isolate himself as trees made poor conversationalists and he doubted they could tell him where he was. He may of looked the part of a monster, but he sure didn't want to live like one.

With his mind made up he began the walk to the town.

 **20 minutes later.**

The land made no changes during the distance he traveled. It was still the errie wasteland he saw upon waking.

He could see the entrance to the town just ahead with an iron gate spread open as if to welcome any who enter. At the same time a scarecrow with a pumpkin head was put at it's side as if to be a greeter. As he began to walk to the entrance he stopped to see something...peculiar on the side of the road.

It looked like a white porcelain tub that had...feet?!

He walked closer to it examining it closer, it was empty and was doing nothing but swaying slightly as if waiting for something... or someone.

HI-YAA was all he heard before *THUNK* he collapsed to the ground with his head exploding with pain from the impact, barely conscious he heard three squeaky individuals talk behind him.

"Look it's like those things oggie boss around before jack squashed him!" Stranger one said.

"It sure is scary looking" replied another.

"Hey let's bring it home we could play scorpion tag with it." Said a light young feminine voice.

" Sounds fun I'll get my bear traps! Here help me throw it in the tub it took a lot to swing that bat at it's thick skull."

As for the battered unlucky creature on the floor, after all the stress and previous head trauma was too much for him. Light cackling and small hands lifting him was all he was aware of before he finally succumbed to darkness.

 **End chapter**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed let me know what you think.**

 **Untill next time goodbye.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again just a quick note I did some minor tweaks for my first chapter and hopefully fixed the grammar errors and some bad wording. Anyway if you wanna re-read for a better first chapter evaluation that previously wanted me to curl up in a corner away from the world to my shame then do so otherwise on to next chapter. Also another quick note this takes place in KH 2 just to clarify and once again.**

 _ **Kingdom**_ **hearts is a product of Square Enix and Disney studios. The only thing that is mine is the OC that is all.**

 **One last note it's optional copy and paste this soundtrack link to listen to while reading the italic portion of this. just thought it might help set the stage I guess. Anyway enjoy.**

 **url?sa=t &source=web&rct=j&url=%23&ved=0ahUKEwivkunEv-fUAhUT7mMKHZhpBBwQ8TUIHjAA&usg=AFQjCNF1sHlk2z9QIx28jtvfnGP_UlkifA**

 _Dream/memory speech: hello_

Normal speech: hello

 **Chapter 2**

 _Two kids could be seen running across a beach kicking up sand on the go._

 _A boy and a girl both around the age of 14._

 _"Hey wait up!" said the boy._

 _"How bout you speed up slowpoke" the girl replies._

 _The girl finally comes to a stop at their spot lightly breathing._

 _While "slowpoke" comes to a stumbling halt behind her and lands on his back with his arms spread out breathing_ _heavily._

 _The girl laughs at his actions._

 _"you know..huff.. just because you..huff..have track..huff.. doesn't make you..huff.. better then me." Says the boy in exasperation._

 _The girl smiles and replies_

 _"Well slowpoke it makes me superior in a foot race against you that's for sure" she says smiling._

 _She sits down on the sand next to him looking out to the sea. The sun soon to fall beneath the horizon shining its radiant brilliance across the water making it sparkle and shimmer across it's surface._

 _The boy sits up and watches the sight with her. The boy begins to speak keeping eye contact with the sunset in view._

 _"I got the question today" he says._

 _She turns her head to look at him curiously._

 _"Did you tell them?" She says._

 _"You know how my parents would react. They've all been about how i must follow the family tradition of being a tailor because your father and his father and his fathers father have been doing it for generations and not to mention my mom is so overprotective of me and wants nothing but a safe danger free profession for me." He said somewhat mockingly._

 _The girl giggles and with a smile says "What do you want to do when you grow up then?"_

 _"No way! You first" He says laughing._

 _She gives a mischievous look "Ok fine but you have to tell me after i do."_

 _"Deal" he says immediately_

 _She turns to look back at the fading sunset. "I want to be a teacher and to see the world" she says._

 _"Pffftt." He waits for a second._

 _"oh wait you're serious?" he says._

 _She elbows him in the side._

 _"OOF" he grunts out holding his side._

 _"Of course I'm serious, teachers are probably not doing their job right if your still the same bozo as you are." She says with a smirk._

 _"HEY!" he says indignantly. Then begins to chuckle afterwords._

 _"Ya i guess so." he says looking back to the sunset._

 _"Ok i told you what i'm gonna do now its your turn!"_

 _"OK OK fine ill tell" A far away look crosses his face._

 _"I...I want to be a pilot, I'd love nothing more then to soar across the sky doing all kinds of aerial maneuvers and just being free as a bird. " He says looking across the water_

 _He hears barely concealed snickering to his right to see her shaking ever so slightly._

 _"ha ha ok fairs fair i laughed at your dream now you laugh at mine i get it." he says._

 _She stops and looks at him a light smile played upon her face._

 _"oh no its not that its just when you said that i knew you meant it with all your heart. You just looked adorable when you said it." she says._

 _He blushes and quickly turns to toward the almost faded sunset. While she in turn does the same._

 _"Well i know we will have no trouble achieving these dreams of ours i hope we both get what we want in life." the girl says._

 _She looks to him one more time._

 _"don't you agree"_

 ** _Ethan?_**

 ** _/_**

The Heartless form woke up with a start, looking down breathing heavily as he began to contemplate on his dream.

"Ethan... my name... is Ethan" Ethan said in a whisper.

He remembered his name. That boy was him he was sure of it. The memory of the girl was still fuzzy for him however.

"who was she?" Ethan wondered.

Deep in thought it wasn't until a small *THUNK* hitting the spot right next to his head was he made aware of his current situation. He looked to the the spot of contact to see a small black dart with a tiny grinning skull on its design. He then looked to the origin of the projectile to see three small children each wearing a different mask over their face. One of the boy wore a red onesi with a devil mask over his face. The other with green hair had gray skeleton themed shirt and pants with a grinning skull for a mask. The last was a little girl who wore a witch costume with a tall pointy hat and a green witch mask with strands of stiff black hair coming from where the hat met her head.

They were throwing darts at him and discussing something.

"wait.. darts?" Ethan thought in confusion.

He tried to move but was immediately hindered by metal clasps holding his hands to the wall, he looked to the restraints holding him. He then saw something baffling, he was restrained to a giant dart board with images of skulls, crossbones, and dice on it. He looked back to his kidnappers to hear them arguing and he began to listen.

"arghh you missed again! its my turn now!" The witch said to the boy in red.

"No it's mine!" Said the boy in the skull mask.

"Wait I'll get it this time" Said the boy in red aiming for another throw.

The little witch snatched the dart from his hand and was about throw it herself when the boy in the devil costume tackled her, causing the skull mask kid to jump in to claim his dart board rights as well, causing the fight to turn into a smoky tumbleweed brawl with flying punches and kicks.

Ethan watched in no small amount of amusement as the brawl rolled it's way out the open door into the next room.

Seeing his chance Ethan began using his newfound strength to pull hard against the metal holding his arms making it groan in protest. Within a minute he manages to snap them off leaving him falling to the floor.

He lands on his hands on knees and proceeds to find a way out of the place he was held captive in.

He goes through the door the kids went through and enters the room to see a door with dim light shining under it on the other side of the room.

He walks to the door trying to be as quiet as possible.

*CRASH*

Ethan hears crashing to his left and looks to see an open doorway that leads to a kitchen beyond it and the trio were at throwing pots, pans, and other various utensils.

"Geez it feels like im in a cartoon!" He thought exasperatingly

He reaches the door and opens it to reveal the familiar bright pale moon in the sky and a pathway that led through the woods, and immediately started running to freedom, unnoticed by the lunatic children.

 **15 minutes later**

While trying to find a way back to the town he originally tried to find answers at. Ethan thought back to the dream he had while unconscious.

He saw himself and a girl on a beach and was seemingly best friends with that his home he saw too? He didn't have enough information to go on. Maybe another memory will reveal itself later on, hopefully on his own terms without getting knocked unconscious.

Ethan thought about his body again. While it had a nightmarish appearance he couldn't help be feel awed by it's strength, and hopefully with time be able to learn how to use his wings.

Coming out of thought he comes across a metal rusted gate smaller then the one at the town entrance.

Pushing past it he finds himself on a small bridge over a tiny canal. He moves across it to come face to face with... a dead end. A 10ft dark encrusted maroon wall lay in front of him boxing the area in.

"You can't be serious. Where do I go from here?!" He shouts frustratingly.

He looks around for another way to pass and sees a small sign posted in front of said wall.

It read "Tug me for relocation" while an arrow pointed to what looked like a thick dead vine hanging from the other side and curling at the base of the wall as if forming a foothold.

He looked back and forth from the sign to the vine, skeptical of the message.

"This is silly" he thought.

However seeing as there was no other way forward in sight he put his foot in the curl of the vine was actually surprised by it's now apparent integrity as it held him with no obvious strain, he took hold of it in his hand he gave a single tug.

"WHOA" he shouts in alarm as it began to effortlessly lift him over the wall.

He reached the peak of the wall to see an interesting view.

First the moon seemed brighter and bigger then ever illuminating the entire desolate world around him.

Second was the town that he'd been searching for was just below and beyond the a gate in the clearing ahead of him.

Third... was that the vine he clutched was only the tip of what looked like a large gray hill with a long tentacle like growth emerging from the top.

He began to realize that whatever this thing was might in fact be alive.

All concerns however were thrown aside as it lowered him to the ground as hastily landed back on solid unmoving ground.

Looking back at it he sees it curl into itself as if to sleep.

He gets away from the strange entity and quickly makes his way past the gate. Which then finally led him to the town entrance where he previously was kidnapped.

Not wanting to get caught unaware again he hurrys past the gate into the town.

/

"All this effort just to ask directions..*sigh*.. this sucks" he said tiredly.

"I mean who designed this pla— "

HELP!, JACK!, SOMEONE! ANYONE!" A voice shouted out just ahead.

Ethan runs for the source of the voice, coming upon an open square surrounded by a few dark crooked houses. What he sees confuses and angers him.

In the center of the square next to a large fountain with a draconic figure head was a strange little man holding a mega phone in his hand. He had a cone shaped torso, thin legs, and arms and wearing a black suit with thin stripes running vertically across it. His cone shaped head was adorned with a equally coned hat. His face was painted white and displayed fear and panic.

The strange little man was cornered by seven monsters.

They were thin wiry creatures with bandages wrapped around their bodies leaving only their torso exposed revealing skeletal rib cages, , dried mummified hands with cruel wicked talons for fingers, and a single glowing yellow eye on their faces surrounded by an impenetrable darkness.

The worst part was that they all carried the same symbol that lay on his torso.

"Am.. am I one of them?!" He thought uncertainly.

The little man picked up his mega phone and spoke nervously. "NOW LI–LISTEN HEAR YOU FIENDS AS MAYOR I DEMAND YOU LEAVE MY TOWN AT ONCE."

The creatures do not react to this and continue to creep towards him.

"JACK WHERE ARE YOU! IM ONLY AN ELECTED OFFICIAL, I CAN'T HANDLE THIS BY MYSELF!." cried the panicking now identified mayor.

Ethan sees the monsters continue their advance on the mayor. He may be as monstrous looking as the creatures but he was still human on the inside. He seethed in rage at their attempt of cruelty.

"HANG ON IM COMING TO HELP" He cries right before he begins to charge the spry monsters

Both the mayor and the mummified creatures turn to acknowledge him. Upon seeing him barreling in his direction the mayor cries out in fear "NOT ANOTHER ONE. JACK I REALLY NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE HERE"

The creatures regard him in a almost confused way. Ethan takes advantage of this by barreling into the seven creatures knocking them down only to grab the first one with his clawed limb in one hand raising it by its thin neck then proceeded to repeatedly slam it down into the floor.

"RAAAHHHHGGG" Was all that he said before slamming it one last time into the floor causing it to explode into dark particles before it disappeared, now destroyed.

He pants lightly, raising his gaze up to the remaining six creatures startling the mayor with his now his glowing yellow eyes, grinning maw of teeth and misty darkness that shrouded his entire body

This strength was so addicting, the power he felt when he crushed the creature again, it was intoxicating...more... He wanted more, he wanted to DESTROY, TO OBLITERATE, TO RIP THEM LIMB FROM LIMB AND REDUCE HIS ENEMYS TO NOTHING!

"WHO'S NEXT!" He snarls, going into a universal fighting technique known to every predator and pre industrial human.

Don't stop swinging and slashing until they retreat or stop moving at all.

His claws spread out "invitingly", eager to rend , crush and destroy for all out carnage.

They got up swiftly and twitching, hesitating only for a moment before they leap to swiftly assault the maddened Ethan.

Ethan responds in kind and charges forward roaring to meet them head on.

"LETS GO"

 **chapter end.**

 **Does make me a jerk for leaving a cliff hanger like this?**

 **Probably**

 **Anyway I hope I've improved my writing a good margin and hope the descriptions of things didn't drag on too much, this is only my first story so only time ,reader input and practice can help me improve along the way.**

 **Anyway thanks for reading and the next chapter won't be too far behind.**

 **I don't want to rush the first action scene so I'm want to execute it as best as I can for the start of the next chapter.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


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